The exhibition Space Shuttle Enterprise: A Pioneer explored Enterprise's critical role in the development of the space shuttle program.

In 1976, NASA unveiled a new type of space vehicle. The space shuttle was a reusable spacecraft that launched as a rocket and landed on a runway like an airplane. NASA intended that the space shuttle would usher in a new era of frequent and cost-effective spaceflights. The orbiter Enterprise, the first of these revolutionary spacecraft, was a test vehicle whose important contributions to the shuttle program were realized within Earth's atmosphere.

In July 2012, Enterprise joined the collection of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. Hurricane Sandy damaged the Museum's Space Shuttle Pavilion. As a result, Enterprise itself was not on public display for several months. Space Shuttle Enterprise: A Pioneer provided a brief introduction to Enterprise with compelling artifacts of the era, archival images, and video clips to illustrate the history and significance of this prototype orbiter.

The exhibition celebrated the pilots and engineers who contributed to the Enterprise story, as well as the technological innovations that helped to make Enterprise an icon of the space program.

This exhibition also included photos crowdsourced from the public to document Enterprise's remarkable journey from experimental orbiter in the 1970's to its inspiring trip to Intrepid in 2012. To see the collection of photos, click here.

Please note that the space shuttle Enterprise was not on display until the Space Shuttle Pavilion reopened in July 2013 on the Flight Deck of Intrepid.